13 April: Monday

Paris, France: The days are beginning to all run together. If it weren’t for my little vitamin pill box, I would have no idea what day it has become.

Lisa and Lenny started back to their homeschooling routine this morning, after a one-week “spring break” hiatus. Lucy has a new program starting today, requiring the use of a computer for absolute hours. Oh. Dear. Lord. The child is in Kindergarten. Is this necessary? They finally ordered an iMac for Leo, as he spends about 5 hours a day online, using Lenny’s computer finishing his assignments... and Lenny needs his laptop for work. Lisa says it’s fine if Lucy uses her laptop because she has to be with Lucy all the time while Lucy completes her lessons. What do families do if they don’t have a computer? Or if they have four kids and one computer? This is just an awful mess. I know my grandkids (Kinder and second grade) will catch-up, but what about the kids in high school? This really could be a bad thing. We are so sad thinking about Sierra, the daughter of Dave’s college roommate. She is a senior this year, heading off to the University of Oregon. No prom. No graduation. Will school even start in the fall?

The wind stopped blowing about 4a (again) and the morning was just wonderful - sunny (82 degrees) and clear. The construction crew working on the half-finished campsite next to us have not been showing-up to work very often (this is a good thing - for them and for us), so we did sleep-in until 8a. After coffees, DT headed out to the cove on his bicycle and I headed out to walk. I had not reached the other of the resort before I noticed a small flock (10-12?) white pelicans circling above. Pelicans were spotted on the west golf course a few days ago. Had they returned?

When I reached the only entrance to the west course, I did see two pelicans... so have no idea where the other birds went. To the south of us, the Salton Sea (the largest lake in California) is host to thousands of brilliant white pelicans. The birds are fascinating and they do fly up to the Palm Springs area quite often. When in flight, they are quite visible, as they are so white, but with just a tip of their wings, the entire flock can become invisible against the sky background. It is an amazing thing to witness.

This pair were pretty busy chopping. There are a lot of little fish and critters in the lake and ponds at MCC. Maybe a little sushi lunch? Obviously they are not quarantined. No masks.

Later on my walk, I saw a turtle on the east course. It had been years and years and years since I had seen a turtle in this resort. The guy/gal was absolutely huge - I’d say 10-inches across.

The turtle was just having a little sunbath. With so many campers abandoning our resort (another neighbor left this morning), we have noticed so many water fowl - more than usual. Another thing that we have been noticing is our water pressure is so much stronger. Understand, we have plenty of water pressure, but this past week it is super strong. Maybe because there are so few people using water?

Dave found me as I was nearly finished with my walk, but when I told him there were pelicans on the west course, we walked back over there. I made a little movie:

We also noticed a pair of geese seriously making sure the pelicans stayed away from a certain part of the pond. My best-guess is that is where the geese have eggs? When I walked by one of the geese this morning s/he “hissed” at me. I hissed back. Neither of us were impressed. We did see a duck with 4-6 (they were too close together to really count) ducklings following her across the lake. Again, night herons, cranes, green herons, cormorants, coots. It’s practically Wild Kingdom around here.

We (me) had such a long walk, we didn’t get back to our RV until well past noon. After a quick bite, we spent an hour trying to get our rear awning to extend or retract. Somehow, the cloth portion of the awning rolled-up “wrong” when it was retracted yesterday (probably because the wind was blowing 30 mph?). This morning the awning would not extend past about 25%. With me running the awning remote-control like a boss, and DT using a long-handled mop to push-up on the awning, we finally managed to get the awning to extend all the way. We are going to have to watch it though. The RV Life.

The wind started-up again today about 3p. Thanks, Mother Nature.

We really are prompt at catching the nightly news on television during our confinement. First we watch the local Palm Springs news, then watch the national news, and then watch the Los Angeles ABC affiliate. Then we are so ready for a glass of wine!

ASIDE: Is it just me or is the national news (I’m not talking public broadcasting, I mean ABC, CBS & NBC.) really bad now? We used to watch Peter Jennings every night. Now, all we see with David Muir on ABC are Facebook videos. What the hell? And Muir mentions about five times about an upcoming story and then when they show the story is is about ten seconds long. What the hell? And all the prescription drug ads? What the hell? Please comment below.

Since we were having a meatless, but cheesy + eggy, dinner, I made a diary-free appetizer plate for each of us tonight. Carrots, celery, green and black olives, radish, cashews and bread-and-butter pickles. Salty. Sweet. Crunchy. Savory.

I honestly had no idea what I was doing today when I decided to use the broccoli in our not-so-crispy crisper for a crust-less (it’s still Passover) quiche. We had about two cups of florets, so blanched them for a few minutes. I buttered a pie plate, then “dusted” it with grated Parmesan (just like dusting a cake pan with flour). I put a few sprinkles of grated mozzarella (left from the lasagna), added the broccoli and a bit of sautéed shallot (I cooked a bit too much last night for the mushrooms). Five eggs were whisked together with a splash of half-and-half and black pepper (figured the cheeses would be enough salt - I was right), then sprinkled a few handfuls of grated cheddar over. Sure, it would taste good - it was cheese, broccoli and egg. My biggest fear is that it wouldn’t come out of the pan. It did, so easily, and the dish was really delicious. Vegetarian, but not necessarily healthy with all that cheese.

I guess it looks just like quiche, without a crust? And enough for lunch tomorrow.

Our salad (MUST. MAKE. SALAD.) this evening was iceberg, arugula and radicchio, with avocado and cherry tomatoes in a light mustard vinaigrette. Refreshing. Pretty sure we are having the exact same salad tomorrow.

Try to contain your excitement: Tomorrow is ironing day!

Until my next exciting update from The Bubble, I remain, your Marlin Perkins correspondent.